[Copyright © 2013 The Daredevil]

All rights reserved.

***

"He's going to die," I informed my best friend, Nissa.

She sighed. "No, he's not."

"Yes, he is," I argued.

"Would you stop being such a pessimist? He's not going to die; he knows what he's doing," she answered, with a roll of her eyes. It amazed me how much confidence she had in the idiot.

"No, he doesn't. It goes against every law of nature." I heard her growl and fought the urge to laugh.

She grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me around to face her. "Listen to me and listen carefully...we are here to have fun, not for you to analyze the situation. You said you would at least try to have fun," she reminded me, and I sighed in defeat. "So start trying, dammit."

"But analyzing the situation is how I have fun," I grumbled with a pout.

"Not today it's not. Today you're going to have fun like a normal person," she instructed and I laughed. She and I had very different ideas of what a normal person was.

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you when you're scarred for life, because you were witness to someone's death," I stated.

"Shut it, Stratford, and enjoy the show."

I sighed as I looked around. It was amazing how many people had dragged their asses out to watch this. Why the hell would so much people want to watch some idiot flirt with death?

We were standing on the roof of a three-storey building. Nissa had dragged me out of my warm bed when she'd received a text informing her that Ryder Cavanaugh was going to ride his bike on the ledge of the building we were now standing on. There was no way Nissa was going to miss it, and to her concern, neither was I.

I'd said no, grumbled and snuggled further into my pillow, and then she'd betrayed me.

'I'm your bestfriend, the only person who listen to you babble about astronomy. If I die alone in a hallway because my bestfriend left me to fend for myself, you'll never forgive yourself.' After this she was dead to me.

I fidgeted impatiently. Where the hell was the asshole? It was just like him to make people wait. The guy was a jackass, simple as that. They were all here for him, the least he could do was show up on time. Why was that so hard? Being late was never a mistake, it was a lack of good manners and organizational skills.

I heard people start to murmur excitedly and I looked around just in time to spot Ryder ride up on his motorcycle. About freaking time. He skidded to a stop in front of Luca, the guy who'd dared him to do this, and pulled his helmet off. Girls around him swooned and sighed.

Really?

Were they kidding me?

Yeah he was nice to look at, but he was an imbecile, who had no regard whatsoever for his life.

"You sure you wanna do this, Cavanaugh?" Luca asked in a condescending tone, taunting him.

Ryder smirked, "I'm here, aren't I?"

"Seriously, who taught this kid English, his three year old sister?" I mumbled and Nissa elbowed me, making me wince and scowl.

"You don't have to do this, you can just back out and prove everyone right. We all know you're not really a daredevil...more of a pussy, I would say," Luca shouted loud enough for everyone to hear, some of his 'oh I'm too cool for school' friends laughed and the rest snickered, not bold enough to laugh at one of the most popular guys in school. They were idiots.

"Um, funny, that's not what your mom said last night. Although, she didn't actually say much; her mouth was a little full," Ryder smirked. The crowd erupted in laughter and snickers.

Luca glared angrily at the crowd then turned back to Ryder. "Just do the dare, Cavanaugh."

Ryder saluted him then turned to the blonde hanging on Luca's arm, Luca's current girlfriend. He beckoned her with a finger and she immediately obliged. Soon to be ex-girlfriend, I guess. When she reached him, he grabbed her by the waist and crashed his lips to hers. Luca gasped and grabbed her arm, trying to pull her away. Finally Ryder pulled away and the blonde walked back to Luca, who stared at her dumbfounded.

"What the hell?" The blonde shrugged and turned to give Ryder a wink, who smirked smugly in return, placed his helmet back on and skidded of in the ledge's direction.

"That was so out of a cliche, overrated movie." I rolled my eyes.

"I know, right? What does he see in her anyways?" Nissa grumbled next to me, and I chuckled.

"Oh, you so wish you were her right now," I teased, playfully nudging her with my elbow.

"I know," she answered back with a pout.

"Aw, poor baby." I ruffled her hair and she gave me a playful glare. Nissa was much shorter than I was, so I used that in my advantage a lot. She hated when I ruffled her hair because it made her feel like a kid, which is exactly why I did it so often.

I turned back to the action when Ryder switched gears on his bike; adjusting the speed. I watched his posture straighten, his face morph into that of pure concentration and his hands tighten on the handle bars. I held my breath as he positioned his bike on the narrow ledge. Why someone would do something so stupid was beyond me.

The shouts and screams of the crowd were soon white noise as my eyes focused on the sleek black bike and its rider. I watched as his hands changed the gear on the bike once again, and sand kicked up into the air at the friction of the back wheel and the ground. He steadied the bike as he leaned into it. Changing the gears once again, he saluted the crowd and took off down the narrow ledge. I found it extremely fascinating how easily he could keep his bike in a steady line, even at the speed he was going. You definitely needed skills and concentration to do something like that.

I sucked in a breath when his bike came to a skidding halt at the end of the ledge. I let the breath out when he maneuvered his bike in the roof's direction, landing it perfectly in front of Luca. The crowd erupted in hollers, catcalls and whistles.

"Pay up, fucker," Ryder demanded once he had pulled his helmet off, his hair a complete mess. He ran a hand through it and extended the other in Luca's direction.

Luca grudgingly took his wallet out and handed Ryder what looked like a hundred-dollar bill. Grabbing the money with a smirk, he held his hand out to Luca's girlfriend, who quickly took hold of it and climbed onto his bike behind him. He handed her his helmet, and they took off. Luca cursed and stomped away angrily, the crowd still hooting, fueled with unshrinking excitement.

I turned towards Nissa and cocked an eyebrow, expectantly. "Can we leave now?"

"Fine, but you're going to that party with me on Friday," she announced and my eyes widened.

"No way in hell." I folded my arms across my chest. Did she know me at all? As much as I loved her, parties were not my thing, they'd never been. I hated crowds, always had, they made feel trapped and vulnerable. Nissa knew this, but she insisted pushing myself to step out of my comfort zone was sometimes necessary.

She turned around and stopped in her tracks, her eyes filled with mischief. "If you go with me to that party, I promise not to drag you to the mall with me for an entire month." Her hands traced an imaginary rainbow, and her grin grew wider as her hands spread further.

I thought over her offer for a minute. No going to the mall with Nissa for a whole month? I didn't need to think twice.

"Deal!"

***

"It's like they gravitate towards each other or something," Nissa muttered, fascinated, a fry hanging in her hand near her mouth, completely dazed.

"Well people do tend to gravitate towards other people with whom they share similarities with," I informed her as I chewed on a piece of lettuce.

"Right, so the popular people at our school all gravitate towards each other because they are all so effing hot." She sighed dreamily and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Nissa and I were complete opposites. While she would spend her entire day daydreaming about the hot and popular, I spent mine worrying about homework that wasn't due for two weeks.

I nodded, deciding to humor her, "It's a table of skinny Barbies and buffed Kens."

"A table of fake skinny Barbies and fake buffed Kens," she corrected, taking a sip out her coke.

"What do you mean?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and she turned to me with an incredulous look. When I shrugged, she huffed and motioned her head in the popular table's direction.

"Come on, Case, you don't honestly believe that Chloe's boobs are real? Or Bobby's nose? Tommy's lips?" she answered in a 'duh' tone.

I glanced over at the table of self-proclaimed royals and laughed. "Tommy's lips are kind of abnormally big." My mind went back to the time Tommy had walked in our English class, wearing bandages on his lips.

"Right, I know..." She trailed off as her focus completely shifted to something behind me. I turned around and rolled my eyes. Something? More like someone. Someone in the Adonis vessel of Ryder Cavanaugh, standing by the cafeteria door, a redhead on one hand and a blonde on the other.

I turned in my seat to face Nissa. "You gotta stop drooling over him; he's not worth your effort."

"I know, but he's just so fucking hot. Those blue eyes, that gorgeous smile with the dimples... And none of it is fake; unlike his friends. He's perfect. He's broken his nose like three times and not once has he gotten it fixed." She sucked in her bottom lip between her teeth and sighed heavily.

"It doesn't depend on the amount of injuries to reconstruct your nose, it depends on the damage," I told her, busying myself with my food.

"Yeah, yeah, still hot." She rested her elbow on the table and placed her head in the palm of her hand and sighed dramatically, staring at Ryder.

"Okay, then," I glanced down at my watch, "Spanish starts in twenty, which means it's time for me to go."

"Um, yeah, sure, whatever," she answered, inattentively, and I smiled.

"See ya' later, Nissa." I stood up and paused, waiting for her reply. She dismissed me with a flick of her wrist, still staring at Ryder. I rolled my eyes, with a grin, and walked away. After depositing my trash in the garbage, I walked out the cafeteria and headed to my Spanish class.

I was halfway there when I spotted my boyfriend, Drake Crane, up ahead. "Drake," I called out. He turned around and waited for me at the end of the hall, so I sped up. Once I had reached him, I greeted him with a quick hug and a 'hey.'

"Hey, Case," he greeted. I kept one arm around him as we headed down the hall.

"So Nissa is dragging me to that party tonight—you're going to be there, right? I don't think I could endure it alone," I pouted and he gave me what looked like a smile in return, but somehow it seemed forced. Drake had been acting distant for almost three weeks now and it was starting to freak me out. I figured it might have something to do with his parent's divorce, so I didn't dwell too much on it.

"Listen, Casey, we need to talk," he told me with a sigh, making my heart skip a beat. The words 'we need to talk,' usually ended with 'we need to break up'.

"Okay, but not now. I have-" I glanced down at my watch, "-eighteen minutes until Spanish starts, and you know I always like to be there fifteen minutes early. Deducing from the look on your face, this is going to take more than three minutes and it's going to take me two minutes to get there and I already wasted one with this little monologue, so I'll be late if I don't leave now. So bye." I gave him a quick kiss on the lips and hurried off before he could stop me. I had a bad feeling he would say something I didn't want to hear, and I was doing what I usually did; avoiding it until it became hard to ignore; inevitable.

I arrived a minute late to the Spanish classroom, but still had fourteen left to catch up on last week's lesson. I sat in my usual chair at the front of the class and flipped open my textbook. I was entirely absorbed in my textbook, the fact that someone had walked in, completely lost on me. I did notice, however, when they sat down next to me. No one, except for me, arrived before the teacher to any class. I lifted my head and slowly turned towards the person next to me.

I found two blue orbs staring back at me, intently.

"Can I help you?" I asked, hesitantly.

"Do you always come to class this early?" he inquired, inquisitively, his eyes studying my every movement.

"That's really none of your business," I told him as I returned my focus to my textbook. I felt his eyes run down my body and I shifted in my seat, uncomfortably.

"Why do you always wear your hair in a ponytail?" he asked, an intrigued look dancing in his eyes.

I turned slowly towards him with an impatient sigh. "Are you always this nosy?"

He tilted his head in thought. "Most of the time, yeah."

"Screw off." Ryder Cavanaugh was not someone I wanted to be associated with. I'd worked too hard to create the image that I had; I didn't need him ruining all of my work.

"Already did that this morning, actually," he informed me and I gagged. Could this guy be anymore crude?

"You're disgusting," I stated in a matter of fact tone and he shrugged lazily.

"Been called worse." He squinted his eyes for a moment and then I saw recognition flash in them. "You're Drake's girl, aren't you? Macy." I tried not to flinch at the name mixup.

"Casey," I corrected him, annoyed. "And no, I'm not his girl, I'm his girlfriend."

"What's the difference?" he asked, his eyes half-lidded and I knew that he wasn't really interested in hearing the answer. If he didn't want to know, why did he even ask?

I sighed impatiently again, my patience was running thin and if he didn't watch it, his face would soon meet my fist. "When you say I'm his girl, it sounds like you're saying that I belong to him, which I don't."

"Do you date other people?" he asked and I gave him an 'are you on crack?' look.

"No. What does that have to—"

"Then you belong to him, you're his, because no other guy can date you." He reached over towards me and grabbed hold of the ribbon holding up my hair. He gave it a look and retrieved his hand when I glared.

I growled. "Listen, Ryder, is it? If you don't have anything better to do, trust me, pissing me off is not the answer."

"Hmm, feisty—I like feisty," he wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

"Go away."

"I will, but first, I hear you're fluent in Spanish..."

I turned my attention back to my textbook. "So?"

"I need a Spanish tutor. I'm failing Spanish and coach says that if I don't bring up my grade, I'm off the team. Hockey means absolutely everything to me...well, actually, so does my bike, oh, and food, and let's not forget sex—god, I love sex." His eyes shifted away from me and I had a feeling his thoughts had as well.

"Sex is just a mindless act used to pass time, when love isn't involved," I murmured loud enough for him to hear.

"You've obviously never had sex with me. Trust me, sweetheart, sex is never just something to pass time with, when I'm involved," he smirked cockily and I rolled my eyes.

"Right." What I was supposed to answer to that, I had no idea.

"So you gonna tutor me or what?" he inquired, arching a perfectly shaped eyebrow. Why was that possible? And how exactly was it fair that the asshole had beautifully shaped eyebrows when I had to pluck mine almost every week?

"Sorry, don't have the time," I lied through my teeth as I tried to focus on my book.

"See, I think you're lying, I think you have all the time in the world but you're not really fluent in Spanish," he declared, a challenge in his tone.

"Mi español es perfecto, solo no quiero darte tutoría y no quise ofenderte al decirlo directamente." His eyes glazed over as I spoke. "My Spanish is perfect, I just don't want to tutor you and I didn't want to offend you by directly saying so."

"Sexy as fuck," he muttered under his breath. "Now say, 'I want to ride you so fucking hard, Ryder.'" As if.

"Eres el idiota más grande que he conocido." I gave him a fake smile and he smirked.

"You just called me an idiot, didn't you?" He tried to hide a grin.

"The biggest one, I've ever met, actually," I told him.

"Touche," he grinned.

"Ryder?" Ms. Sanchez walked in the room, her eyes on Ryder. "What are you doing in my class so early? You're usually here thirty minutes late."

"Hey, Ms. Sanchez, you're looking as beautiful as always," he told her, making a blush stain her cheeks, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"Oh Ryder, as charming as always." I snorted and Ryder threw me a smirk.

"Thank you. And to answer your question, I'm actually here trying to convince the lovely Casey here, to tutor me." Could this guy be any more full of it?

"Oh, you do need the help, you're failing miserably in my class," she told him with a grimace, and he nodded with a pitiful look on his face.

"I know, but it's only because I'm always so distracted by the teacher." Ms. Sanchez giggled, shaking her head. "Could you help me convince Casey that I'm worth the trouble?"

"All you can do is ask her, she is my best student." I gave her a smile and she gave me a wink in return.

"So I've heard."

"Sorry, like I said, I don't have the time," I muttered, my eyes fixed on my textbook, I sighed in relief when the bell rang and students started piling in. Ryder stood up, walked over towards me and leaned down.

"I'll be back. See ya around, sweetheart," he whispered in my ear and then stood up, I gave him a wide-eyed look and he winked before walking away.

***